Suburban Station
Market East Station was the one new station to open as part of the new Center City Commuter Connection and opened on November 12, 1984 replacing the 1893-built Redding Terminal that closed four days earlier. This former terminal still houses Redding Terminal Market on its lowest level (in operation since the station opened in 1893) and the original trainshed is now part of the Pennsylvania Convention Center with a direct entrance to the Regional Rail Station in the former building. The station was renamed Jefferson Station in a naming rights deal to promote the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital a few blocks from the station (in a deal worth $7.4 million over nine years).
The new Market East Station is located underground and contains four tracks and two long island platforms. These platforms are so long that two separate trains can stop on them at ones with trains listed as 4A, or 3B, depending upon if the train is stopping in section A or section B.
Trains operate using conventional right-hand running through the station. The island platform for tracks 1 and 2 is used by the ex-Redding Line trains, with these trains line leaving the new opened in 1984 underground tunnel after curving north after leaving the station and joining the 1890s built Redding Viaduct. These trains all stop at Temple University station and continue onto the Chestnut Hill East, Fox Chase, Lansdale/Doylestown, Manayunk/Norristown, Warminster and West Trenton Lines.
The island platform for Tracks 3 and 4 are used by trains heading to Suburban and 30th Street station and continuing onto the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad Lines specifically the Airport, Chestnut Hill West, Media/Wawa (as of 2024 a sign still staid Media/Elwyn), Paoli/Thorndale, Trenton and Wilmington/Newark Lines.
There is service from the station on all Regional Rail lines except those on the Cynwyd Line that terminates at Suburban Station. Nearly all trains (including those on the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad Lines that together have higher ridership than the ex-Redding Line trains and need to terminate in Center City) continue through the station to Temple University Station and terminate or originate there. The exception to this being Trenton Line trains on weekends that terminate and originate directly here at Market East.
The station's two platforms feel open and are designed around allowing some natural light down to the platforms below particularly over the middle of the platforms. These window areas are clearly visible from the street. Multiple sets of windows run along both the SW and SE walls of the buildings at the intersection of Filbert Street and 11th Street.
The northern wall of the platform and station area is covered by a colorful tiled wall that attempts to abstractly depict the four seasons. The platforms have blocks of tile around wide banks of escalators and stairs up to the concourse above. These are a mixture of green and blue tiled walls. A few silver support beams line the middle of the wide platforms. The ceiling of the platform is white with a corrugated look to hide the ventilation ducts above. The entire station hasn't been fully renovated since it opened in the 1980s but overall is aging well and doesn't feel incredibly dated like how some other transit stations from the 1980s feel.
The platforms have two distinctive entrance areas. One at each end of the platforms. Although all three means of access (except for the elevators) to the wide platforms are fully enclosed with glass requiring passengers having to pass through doors to leave the station. Towards the eastern end of the platforms located between 10th and 11th Street are two wide banks of escalators/staircase in both directions (surrounded by glass) that lead up from each end of Section B to what is the main waiting area at the station with penalty of benches, restrooms and a customer service window. One very long bank of turnstiles leads out to the concourse. This concourse runs just south of the platform with glass along its northern wall allowing natural light to enter the station along with views of the trains. This entrance is located just under the eastern end of the triple-height ceiling of the platform that allows natural light down to the platforms.
Entrance A covers the western ends of the platform and is located under 11th and 12th Streets right under Redding Terminal Market and the former Broad Street Station. It is opposte the section B entrance and begins just beyond the western end of the windows that allow natural light to shine down on the platforms below. For this entrance area a single glass enclosed staircase/escalator leads up to another waiting area that's slightly smaller but still contains traveler services like a schedule rack and benches. There are also elevators from this entrance that lead down to the western end of the platforms. Signs on both platforms say, “elevators at western end of platform.” A bank of turnstiles leads out to the main concourse that runs one level underground just south of the platform entrances.
The main entrance mezzanine/concourse runs east to west and beginning from the east is an entrance directly from the Fashion District shopping mall's lower level. This new mall replaced the former Gallery at Market East mall occupying the same space that was built starting in 1977 (when building suburban style indoor shopping malls in Downtown's was all the range). During the malls opening hours passengers can walk through the mall for an underground connection to the 8th Street stations of the Market Frankford Line and Broad-Ridge Spur and PATCO's 8th & Market Station. There are direct entrances (two separate banks of doors lead to one main set of doors) from Filbert Street just west of its corner of 10th Street. An elevator is included.
Next the concourse passes the entrance to Section B. This is followed by entrances, just staircases along each side of 11th Street, just south of the windows that provide the natural light down to the station platforms. This is followed by a short passageway that leads to the Market-Frankford L Line's 11th Street Station. The western end of the concourse leads to two more entrances. One is along the southside of Filbert Street, that is beneath the elevated viaduct that carries the former Redding Terminal (now part of the convention) center over Filbert Street as this station runs along a north-south axis. There is also access directly into the Pennsylvania Convention Center using portions of the former Redding Terminal headhouse building and trainshed, and into Redding Terminal Market.
Photos 1-8: October 19, 2012; 9-16: October 2, 2013; 17: October 23, 2013; 18-37: September 3, 2024; 38-47: September 4, 2024;
